The S&S thoughts: Sincere and Silly. From the beaches of the Hawaiian shores to the Inland Empire of the Southern California landscape, to the high arches of St. Louis to the cultural history of Memphis, to where I call home now, this is my story, thoughts and hopes.

WoW TONO Thoughts

DEFINED ME ...

Some might say that I am off-the-wall, but I am right-on-the-shelf in the library under unique, Made-in-Hawaii, TONO.--July 2004

GOD'S WISDOM ...

I define true wisdom when God is magnified and glorified through His character. I am privileged to play a role with believers and stories where God and His Son is exalted! For God, be the praise and honor!--August 15, 2009

This turns out to be the #1 personal story of 2009, the pictures and the experience. It was a little more than a full week of FUN with my Sunshine. It might have been cloudy on certain days. But she was there to shine the light on the journey.

We thought we'd share the beauty of the Smoky Mountains. It was our third trip there. We circled the Mountains, and drove through part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
I will work on the story ... the TONO thoughts later in the week ... in between work!

Family

December 23, 2010

I have been reading news report of the two places I lived: Hawaii and Southern California. In Hawaii, the popular tourist attraction Ala Moana Center had its fourth blackout since Sunday, this during the peak season of shopping. The island of Oahu faces more chance of showers till after Christmas. I remember that shopping center from the many hours visiting that location, hanging out and people watching. In Southern California, six to ten inches of rain fell onto the Orange County region, according to the Orange County Register, and in Temecula, California, where I had a newspaper route when I first arrived in the continental U.S.A., 12.56 inches of rain fell, exceeding the annual rainfall of 11.4 inches, according to the Press-Enterprise. It looks like a test of adversity against Mother Nature. Last week, when I was out of town last week over 100 miles away from home, there was pretty pictures of snow.

The light snow falling upon our arrival in the city of Crossville, Tennessee.

Where I parked my truck at the hotel. The light snow was still falling. ...

Picture taken from inside looking outside the lobby window.

The next day after the snow fell from the sky. Nice blue skies! ... Yay!

Furthermore, since Tuesday when I noticed the weather forecast locally, snow was forecasted. Now, it says “Light Snow.” I don’t know what it means, but it will be interesting to experience what it’ll turn out to be, as my Sunshine and I won’t be leaving anywhere. Her parents will be traveling this year from Florida to here.

December 19, 2010

I watched for the second time the first part of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” on Saturday evening. This time it was a little harder to stay awake, and enjoy the movie, which I haven’t followed, because I woke up at 3am in the morning on Saturday. I tried to stay up; however, I just couldn’t do it. Let’s just say that I took several naps along the way.

I’m wondering how many times you all have watched the movie. How many times have you watched the movie?

Earlier on Friday night we had a scare. I was home alone with Sunshine, and my adopted indoor cat, Flitwick; I call him Little Buddy.

Little Buddy up close ...

Little Buddy resting ...

Little Buddy cleaning himself ...

I was awakening after 11pm by my Sunshine asking where Little Buddy was. I responded by saying that he was walking around in the apartment. My Sunshine said that she was looking for over ten minutes already before she woke me up.

We continued to look for another ten minutes or so. We opened cabinets and looked under every place that we could. We couldn’t find him at all. At that point, my Sunshine told me to walk downstairs and look outside in the thirty degree weather. I opened the door, and looked around. He was nowhere to be found. I peered around the side of the two feet from the door, indent of our apartment complex where it provided a place for windows for our neighbors until the next door entrance was. He was lying down in the corner away from the wind, looking all scared and cold. This was the first time that he was out of the apartment—outdoors—for this long of a time. Apparently, Little Buddy slipped out of the apartment when she came into the door.

I could go back to sleep, and get up in a few hours to get to work on early Saturday morning.

December 09, 2010

There are many times that what I want out of life and where I am is not what happens in reality. I need to work harder to execute my professional dreams and living a married life living up to the song, “Lead Me” by Sanctus Real.

I wish that I didn’t have to work so many hours at work, as I have for many years.Why do I have to work so many hours and others don’t? I hope that to get ahead in life I have to work twice as hard as my colleagues and even take more work home, as I have. Do I have to be more persistent in what I want, regardless what they do?

I wish that I had more time to spend on the things that I want to do, instead of constantly feeling trapped of doing my job the “right” way. I noticed that so many others do it the short cut way, just to complete it.

For those on Twitter, how can you express a complete thought in 140 characters?

I notice so many occasions when communications with key parties involved in an issue doesn’t happen. And that cannot happen in 140 characters. Yesterday, at work was a perfect example. I had to work harder because of information not received about staffing for the store. It makes it more challenging to get the projects I need for my professional development.

I wonder what satisfaction people at “get” by continually spreading rumors around at work. Do you realize as a manager how much time is wasted by getting to the truth? How productive is it spreading rumors just to make those gossipers look “better?” It’s not about revisionist history, it’s about facts—what was said, and what was done at that time—not what we would like happen or changing history.

I repeatedly say: Lawmakers in Washington D.C. and in our state legislature really don’t get it! I think that they like the drama of fighting than solving American problems. If you cannot solve our problems, stop taxing us and let US decide where we want to spend our money—even if it is to help others in need!

These were the several random thoughts that I thought about today when I woke up this morning through this afternoon.

September 12, 2010

It is appropriate to make blog post #400 as The Sunshine post on her Special Year Birthday. Happy very Special Year Birthday, Sunshine! I was searching through all the pictures we
have taken together, and I have put them in another photo album. (It's on the very top on the right hand column. of this blog. And there will be more pictures added as time goes on. ...) I thought that I would share four of my
favorites right here, right now!

September 07, 2010

Its forty-five month-meeting anniversary since I
met my Sunshine.I know that throughout
all those months, and even after my marriage there is sooo much more I need to do
to lead as a husband.Recently, Sanctus Real has come out with a song
called Lead Me.The following link is my
prayer to my wife on an on-going basis, as I focus on being “filled with the [Holy]
Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18

Leading a married couple, family, or business
is an awesome responsibility.It is the
order that was determined from the beginning of time.I realize that more than ever now.I suggest that it should be a prayer of all
men in this nation.Our neighborhoods
will be a “better” place to live.I know
that I look at this responsibility in a different light, a much deeper meaning
than just a while ago.It is conviction
to not live by my natural tendencies of the flesh, but to walk in the Spirit.

July 12, 2010

There wasn’t really any out of town trip
scheduled on this vacation.I just
needed some rest and there was a lot to do around the apartment.

I thought I would do some review on the
marriage conference my Sunshine and I attended.

I attended the Weekend to Remember conference
in November.I re-read these two quotes
from the Weekend to Remember workbook:

God
joined a man and a woman together so that together they would mirror His
image.… Their oneness reflects the
character and unity of God (Matthew 19:4-6; John 17:22-23). … Their oneness is
a living picture of this intimate relationship between Jesus Christ and His
followers (Ephesians 5:22-23).

When
couples fail to grasp God’s perspective on difficulties and problems, the
result is isolation.In one bullet point
about this subject, the conference pointed out that “Your response to
difficulties will either drive you apart or bind you together.This is what all married couple faces at one
point of their marriage.

Then, during the first few days of my
vacation, I completed reading the book, Staying Close, by Dennis Rainey.The book reinforced the points of the Weekend
to Remember conference.I know that
there are many areas that I need to respond and lead much more effectively as a
husband. What I read is a high standard to live and
strive to fulfill.But I realize that it’ll
only be when I am walking in His Holy Spirit.

From reading the book, the challenge is to
put what I learned into practical actions that demonstrate to my wife who she
means in my life, the most important person in the world to me, and the true
meaning of what marriage means to me is what I’m meditating on an hourly basis.If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

July 09, 2010

While my wife and mother-in-law was shopping
around locally, I used the time wisely by reading the book, Staying Close, by
Dennis Rainey.It’s about keep working
toward oneness in marriage, not isolation.With my HTC EVO 4G Sprint phone, I can download books from the Amazon
store with its Android Kindle reader.

June 03, 2010

It
was one of those moments this morning when I was working on my laptop for two
hours, trying to get it to start up, but it didn’t. When I pushed the on/off power button it would show the Dell screen and then show it logging off, as if it was frozen there. I even called Dell support for help, which
they couldn’t help me in the over one-hour time span that I was on the phone
with them.

I
was working to locate the Microsoft Install/Reboot CD to reinstall the laptop and erase all my software when my Sunshine woke
up.She wanted to know what I was doing;
I explained it to her.She went to
work.She got my laptop to start up in
safe mode.And then, she got it to start
regularly.My Sunshine really is smarter
than I am.It’s one of the many reasons
why I love her and married her.

June 02, 2010

Today, I discovered
that my Sunshine has strep throat.She
hasn’t been feeling well since early Tuesday morning.She stayed at home from work that day.Later in the afternoon, she made an
appointment early this morning to see the doctor.While she was in the back room, my Sunshine
texted me to let me know that she was diagnosed with strep throat.I’m glad that she finally found out why she
couldn’t sleep continuously.She has her
antibiotics and Advil in hand.That’s
good to know, but I just hope that I don’t get exposed to the strep bacteria.I can’t miss work and living life positively
with my Sunshine!

May 06, 2010

I
haven’t written any stories recently because it’s been a challenging week at
work, and more important stuff to do on the home front.

In
the last week with my work schedule, I considered that the amount of time that
I have to spend at work, it would be nice if I’d own my own business, not
making more stockholders richer.

I am
asking all of you to pray for my immediate future of all the challenges ahead
of me, to get most of the tasks done.I’m
sure that you know how challenging it is for me to multi-task many projects to
do all at once.